Blog |
The latest 10K Club Interview visits the mysteries of ocean planet 4546B, in the iconic vessel, the Aurora! Meet Octavio, a.k.a. OG Brick Studio, and their Subnautica: The Aurora project. Inspired by their love for the video game Subnautica! Show your support, and find out more below.
ABOUT YOURSELF
- What is your first name + last name?
Octavio Galicia….but I am starting to join the community as OG Brick Studio - Where are you from?
Kansas, USA - How old are you?
20 years old - What do you study or do for a living?
I am currently studying for a Graphic Design major in college right now, I’m invested in using my skills in Adobe to make a career by designing Broadway Theatre Posters in the future. - What hobbies do you have?
LEGO! I always try to stay busy with a lot of different hobbies, but LEGO is definitely the hobby I spend the most time with and developing. - Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website that you can share with us?
I’m still laying the groundwork for my future portfolio but my original Instagram account that I used to gain support for The Aurora will be converted to my personal LEGO portfolio sometime in May, check it out here and follow for more! - Have you created any LEGO MOCs (my own creations) that you’re particularly proud of? What is it, why are you proud of it and do you have a photo of it?
I have created 5 MOCs in total so far, The Aurora was actually my 3rd creation and definitely my biggest. However, I’m actually most proud of another MOC I created for the previous Lord of the Rings Contest on LEGO Ideas, Erebor/The Lonely Mountain. I love how it captures the iconic look of the mountain using a midi-scale look and flipping it reveals the inside is a minifigure scale version of the throne room. I do plan on expanding this idea further with the other half of the mountain and potentially making it swing open, all in due time! Check it out here. - How and when did your interest in LEGO products come about?
My interest in LEGO has been present for as long as I can remember, I absolutely adored the idea that I could take all these little pieces and eventually build up to something intricate and playful. It’s something no other toy can really capture, and I suppose I’ve never let go of that endless possibility that LEGO offers. - What does the LEGO hobby mean to you? How does it fit into your life? E.g. build, display, meetups, play the games or 'just' watch the cartoons.
The LEGO hobby to me means everything, it has helped me bolster my creativity in every area of my life and engage in a community that helps each other. It’s shown me just how creative I can be when given the “building blocks” to make something great, whether it’s building an intricate build, crafting the perfect display for all my sets, or interacting with other LEGO enjoyers, I find the LEGO hobby to be one that never stops giving. It’s taken over my life and I can safely say that it has treated me well :) - What is your favourite LEGO theme (current or past)? Why? And has any theme inspired your building style or preference in any particular way?
Now this is a tough one, it is either LEGO Ninjago or Lord of the Rings. My brother and I watched Ninjago as kids and it was everything to us, I remember loving everything about that show and still remember when Zane was revealed to be a robot (core memory). Additionally, I absolutely love all the sets and to this day they don’t get stale with mechs, dragons, or locations, it’s all just so amazing! Lord of the Rings was my favorite fantasy world and the amount of detail and care Lego put into the theme back in the day is unbelievably amazing, I actually owned every The Hobbit set (except for the lonely mountain) and remember creating my own Middle Earth on a LEGO table. I would say both themes have contributed to how I build intricate details or features. I can’t choose between them! - What is your favourite official LEGO set ever? Why?
Initially, I would’ve said a Ninjago City set as they are always so vibrant and simply amazing to look at but I have to give it to the LotR Rivendell set that was released last year. I’ve only seen it in person once and it was a sight to behold, it is expertly built with so many amazing details and amazing techniques used to get the intricate detailing needed for Rivendell. Plus, you get the whole Fellowship?? Yes please! Only thing that might be better would be a Barad-Dur set which I’ve been dreaming of since I was a child. - What is your favourite LEGO element? Why?
Okay so this will be a little strange, but I am a huge fan of piece # 64648 aka the LEGO Fish. It is just so iconic. - Is there a LEGO designer (official LEGO designer or fan designer) who you are inspired by and look up to? Who and why?
No one in particular, however, I love seeing what the community and LEGO cooks up and I’d say I look up to everybody. I constantly see new and exciting things being made that can influence me in a build I’m struggling with or gets me a brand-new idea. LEGO themselves are constantly pushing the boundary with what they can create with new techniques and pieces introduced for us passionate builders to test out. - Is there one or more particular LEGO websites (not official LEGO websites) that you visit often and/or are inspired by?
I find myself visiting BrickLegends and his Ninjago MOCs, I’d say he has some of the best/detailed builds I’ve seen and has a website for all of them. Him and his team are definitely some of the best builders out there.
ABOUT YOUR PROJECT
- Where did your interest in this particular model come from?
Back in my first year in college I was keen on making a HUGE MOC because that previous summer I had created two builds for the first time and now I really wanted to see what I was capable of with a bigger MOC. Shortly thereafter I was introduced to Subnautica and immediately took a liking to the massive ship “The Aurora” which served as a landmark for the player, having been interested in LEGO Star Wars builds I thought I would give it a shot. - How long did the process of making the project take and what did you have to research? What kind of prep, research and design phases did you go through to produce your creation?
The process took much longer than I thought as I quickly turned it into a UCS style model which for my third build I’ve ever made is quite interesting but in the end I did it! I started out by finding a 3D model of the ship and decided to build the front hull first so I could try and capture the blimp shape. Right before Thanksgiving break, I had created about half of the ship and ultimately decided that I didn’t like what I had made and completely restarted development. I spent practically all of break remaking it and ended up with a much sleeker build, after that I spent the rest of the year finishing the build and by the end of the year, I was able to publish on LEGO Ideas!…. until I realized I wanted to rework the look and add a crashed version you could swap out. So, in total I had 3 versions of the build. - What special challenges or frustrations did you face creating the model? What was the most difficult part to recreate?
The stability and swap-ability were certainly some big hurdles to cross. Like previously said, this was my third build ever and I hadn’t quite figured out how to capture such a distinct shape while maintaining stability, then later on with the crashed version I had to decipher the easiest way to swap pieces and oh man that was a headache. - If you could talk to yourself before you started on this project, what would you tell him/her? What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
I’d honestly would have told him to pump the brakes and make something smaller lol, I felt kinda pressured to make this build the best it could possibly be and cared less about school. Now I have struck a good balance between LEGO Hobby and real-life stuff and overall I don’t have any regrets, I love this build and quite proud of how far I’ve come in a short time. - How long did it take to complete the model? Did you finish it fairly quickly, or did it take a long time? And how did the build time compare to the time you spent promoting your Product Idea to reach 10,000 supporters?
Overall, I would say the build took 6 months in total to build, initially it took 3 1/2 months to create what I initially published and then I took some additional time to update the model and use them as milestone rewards. I definitely felt like I spent more time promoting than I did building but idk if that is truly the case, but after your 3rd TikTok it gets draining. - How did it feel when you reached the magic 10,000 votes and how long did it take?
Oh man there was nothing like it, I was at dinner with my family, and we were all anxiously checking and watching it go down. I remember seeing comments of other people counting down as well and it was just amazing to see that community support. I published “The Aurora” on January 2nd and got my 10k votes on December 30th so it took the entire year! I was incredibly happy that I was able to achieve this in just a year and I can’t thank everyone enough. - Approximately how many LEGO bricks did you use to create your model?
2,992! The crashed version was around 350 of those pieces but I’m willing to bet LEGO will figure out a way to reduce that piece count (fingers crossed). - What is your favourite building technique or part/section that you’ve incorporated into your Product Idea?
It would have to be how I built the front hull of “The Aurora”, it is actually built parallel to each other upside down. To capture that blimp shape and with how it looks in-game, I thought it best to build them on top of one another. - If you built your model digitally, what software did you use to build and render your model?
Bricklink Studio! Learned this software over summer of 2022 and it is very easy to get the hang of and I would highly recommend anyone to try it out. Additionally, I used MecaBricks for the renders as it is just a little bit nicer, and I am able to put on custom prints/minifigures too. - If you used custom stickers or prints for your design, how did you create them or where did you get them?
I created all my stickers in Photoshop! Tried my best to replicate that LEGO style and used MecaBricks to effortlessly place them on, also for the Ryley Minifigure I had help from a lovely woman on Fiverr who drew out his printing.
ABOUT LEGO IDEAS
- Do you have any useful advice about creating a successful LEGO Ideas Product Idea?
You gotta make it distinct! There is a lot of creativity going around on this site and unfortunately some of it just gets lost, push your creativity to the limit and make something different! - What (if any) methods did you use to advertise and attract support to your Product Idea?
Social Media is obviously a wonderful method and if you are skilled in creating graphics, I say go for it! It can be fun to make graphics for your own build but if that isn’t your style I recommend going on to your college campus and dressing up as a LEGO brick to gain support….just a random example that comes to mind. - What is your favourite LEGO Ideas Product Idea (besides your own of course)? Are there any Product Ideas you think have been overlooked?
To this day my favorite LEGO Idea set is the Globe, it is just such a perfect combination of display ability and fun to build. I think there are plenty of LEGO Ideas in that past that have been overlooked just due to the sheer amount of entries but some that I personally would have loved to see are ideas that serve as a lovely display for an item or media (Portal 2 Gun, Iron Giant, LED Lamp, Humpback Whale, and Howl’s Moving Castle just to name a few from the recent review). You can always tell so much passion and creativity went on to these builds and while it is upsetting to see so many ideas left on the cutting room floor, don’t let that diminish your creativity/passion because it can still lead to even more amazing things :) - What is it about the platform that attracts you? What tips would you give to anyone who is thinking about uploading an idea?
I love how much it can encourage creativity, LEGO Idea offers a chance for us the fans to really showcase our passion while engaging with the community. For anyone wanting to upload an idea, I would say to just go for it! Rather simple advice but even if you don’t reach 10k take the opportunity to engage in anyone supporting your idea or comment on other projects! - Do you have plans to submit any other Product Ideas in the future? If yes, can you give us a hint what that might be?
Not any plans at the moment! I want to take this time to focus on creating MOCs that I want to make and currently all of them are themes that LEGO uses so not much use in submitting them to LEGO Ideas. BUT like I said previously, I will be putting all my future builds on my Instagram account as my portfolio. It’ll be the best way to stay up to date on my LEGO hobby but until next time, thank you for reading :D
- 10k club interview
- subnautica
- spaceship
- video game
- aurora
- underwater
- space
- survival
Published
By LEGO Sunita
12 comments
By LEGO Sunita
12 comments
By LEGO Sunita
12 comments
Recommended
More To Do
Product Idea Submit A Product Idea Submit Now
